Obamamania

Today's post will be slightly different in that it will be more personal and more rant-like. However, I hope these factors will make it no less enthralling.

As I'm sure many people were aware, American President Barack Obama made his first foreign visit as president to Canada this past Thursday. It was quite the ordeal, and made us feel special again, after Bush's Mexico snub. The rest of the world must be green with envy. The requisite bus trips were planned from the GTA and around the country, and Obama Tees were on sale again. Multiple camera crews milled through the throngs asking people what the day meant to them, and CBC had a couple of hours of coverage, including some stirring images from the quiet, rainy, closed streets before the motorcade arrived. All this attention, even though Obama's schedule barely included time for a wave from his limo into parliament.

I actually made my way to parliament hill shortly after he arrived, but the excitement had mostly died down. There were still some cameras and sign-wavers, but many of the people had dispersed. Still there, however, were the snipers on various roofs around the parliament, which led to a discussion about how many innocent lives would be justified in being taken to protect the president. I fully appreciate the security concerns, and perhaps more so with Obama's unique circumstances. I also appreciate that these people have a job to do, and if there is an imminent threat to the president, then those responsible may have to die quickly. I don't have a problem with the snipers being there, nor was there any indication that they would hastily place anybody in harm's way. It was really more of a rhetorical debate about the circumstances.

My issue with the security came later in the day. We grew tired of waiting outside parliament in the drizzle, so we returned to grab our skates to play some hockey. We ventured across the frozen canal, and made our way to the Sandy Hill rink, only to find it still covered in snow. We decided to try our luck at Jack Purcell, which involved crossing back over the canal. It was when we arrived at Pretoria Bridge that we were informed we would not be allowed to cross until the motorcade had passed, which wouldn’t be for another forty-five minutes. We wouldn’t be allowed to cross anywhere.

Let me set the scene for those of you who are unfamiliar with the ins and outs of Ottawa. The Rideau Canal runs from beside the parliament buildings down to Carleton University. This is about an eight kilometre stretch of the city, with Colonel By Drive following the east side. It was down Colonel By that the president would be travelling to get back to the airport, and therefore the road was closed. To everybody. I can understand keeping vehicular traffic off the street. A man who barely has time to wave can’t be held up by congestion, and I suspect exploding cars have the potential to do more damage that exploding people, even if you are in a bomb-proof limo. But to not let pedestrians cross the street half an hour before he is scheduled to arrive is a little bit ridiculous. Even more so when you consider that the street is eight kilometres long.

We were essentially stuck. The ever helpful police officers snidely suggested we pay for a cab to drive us across on the highway, but we are not in the habit of paying to cross the street, and we took no cash on our hockey excursion. We couldn’t even go home because we lived on the other side of the canal. The people skating on the canal were fine, and there were stairs leading up to the other side of Colonel By from the skateway, but those two lanes were impenetrable. There must have been twelve of us standing beside the road while nobody drove past, held at bay by two grouchy cops. When someone appeared on the other side from the canal, they were quickly attended to and told to stay where they were. (The cop crossed the street to do so.) There was even a police car that drove down the street with a megaphone instructing people to get off their balconies if they overlooked the road, which raised the attention of two cops stationed nearby who wandered towards the site of the people standing quietly on private property to check it out. I would have been tempted to find out what their response would be if I refused to go back inside. I don’t think ‘peacefully enjoying a winter’s afternoon on your balcony’ is a criminal offence.

I reiterate that I understand there are security concerns. I appreciate that they have to take precautionary measures. But I should remind you that this man is driving around in vehicle flown in for the occasion, encased in five inches of military grade armour, among many security specifications. I don’t think the good people living on Echo Drive are likely to be out there with nefarious intentions, and I would like to think that someone would notice a person setting up weapons extensive enough to harm the president. I also think someone with truly evil intentions could simply run back outside as the first cars in the motorcade drove by. Or perhaps those of us waiting to cross around the city could pull out our rocket-launchers just at the right second.

There are going to be security concerns, but you can’t account for everything. Especially in a country like Canada, where his approval rating has topped 80%, and our list of assassinated politicians is two names long in 142 years. Full credit to Obama for squeezing in some time to stroll around the Byward Market and buy a Beavertail and some trinkets, showing his appreciation and comfort in our nation. I suppose a truly clever assailant could have sprinkled some cyanide in with the cinnamon, but Obama was willing to take this risk. However, the Ottawa police were not willing to take the risk of letting citizens cross a major street spanning much of the city up to thirty minutes before the heavily armoured motorcade drove by, nor were they comfortable with people enjoying the presidential view from their balconies. I suppose on the plus side we got to glimpse the outline of his head through the thick tinted glass, but I don’t think that really makes up for the indignity served to the people of Ottawa.

Russel MacDonald